1. Slavery and Rising National Tensions

2. Capture and the Middle Passage
After capture, Africans were packed tightly into slave ships.
The death rate of the “passengers” was 50%.

3. The Middle Passage

4. The Beginnings of Slavery in the United States
The Portuguese and Spanish had already brought Africans to South and Latin America.
In 1619, the first Africans were brought to the colony Jamestown, Virginia by the Dutch.
Anthony Johnson
He was an African brought to the colonies in the 1620s.
He obtained his freedom, and purchased 250 acres of land in Virginia.
He owned at least one slave and white indentured servants.
This shows that blacks were not thought of strictly as slaves until the 1660s.

6. The Effects of the American Revolution and the Constitution
Gradual abolition of slavery in the northern colonies
End of the Atlantic Slave Trade in 1808
Entrenchment of slavery in the South with the invention of the cotton gin in 1793 by Eli Whitney

7. Life of a Slave Most slaves had Sundays off and they went to church.
Most slaves could not read or write, and it was illegal for them to learn.
Slave Codes-They could not: leave their home without a pass, carry a weapon, gather in groups, own property, legally marry, defend themselves against a white person, or speak in court.

8. Resistance Flight-Slaves would runaway.
Truancy-Flight for a short amount of time and then the slave came back.
Refusal to reproduce-Women refused to have children.
Covert Action-Slaves would sometimes kill animals, destroy crops, start fires, steal stuff, break tools, poison food.

9. Violence 4 major slave revolts-
Stono Rebellion-failed revolt in South Carolina in 1739
Gabriel Prosser-led failed revolt in Virginia in 1800
Denmark Vessey-led failed revolt in South Carolina in 1822
Nat Turner-killed 60 white people in Virginia in 1831

10. Punishment Slaves were often brutally punished for misbehaving.
Punishments included: whipping, branding, being sold, gagged (silence), and other torturous methods were used.
Control of the family
Rape

11. Abolitionism Spread in North
Frederick Douglass: runaway slave who became abolitionist leader
William Lloyd Garrison: editor of abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator
Underground Railroad: elaborate network of white abolitionists, free blacks and slaves (not only Harriet Tubman)
Total number of fugitives assisted by the UGR was between 70,000 and 100,000

12. Compromise of 1850 California wanted to be a free state
The South had assumed it wouldn’t be and was upset it was
As a compromise, California would enter the Union as a free state with the condition that Utah and New Mexico would vote on slavery
Fugitive Slave Law – meant to appease South, many Northerners felt it turned them into slave-catchers

13. Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854
Proposed by Stephen Douglas
People in Kansas would vote on whether to have slavery or not (popular sovereignty).
Sounded like a sound compromise, but it upset some anti-slavery forces
Freesoilers (poor farmers who couldn’t compete with slave-owners), and pro-slavery forces streamed in
Mini civil war: “Bleeding Kansas”

14. Political Cartoon, 1856

15. The Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott was a slave who was taken to a free territory by his owner.
He sued for his freedom because he lived in the free territory.
His case went all the way to the Supreme Court, where Scott lost because he was not considered a citizen, thus could not sue in federal court. (He was “property” and could be taken anywhere.)

16. John Brown Abolitionist Involved in the Underground Railroad
Moved to Kansas to support the anti-slavery cause
Responded to violence by pro-slavery men by organizing the murder of 5 proslavery settlers: Pottowatomie Creek Massacre

17. John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry
Brown planned a raid on a federal arsenal
He wanted to distribute weapons to slaves
Action failed. Brown and his men were mostly captured or killed within 36 hours
Brown was ultimately hanged

18. Abraham Lincoln called Brown a “misguided fanatic.”
John Brown

19. Central Historical Question:
Was John Brown a “misguided fanatic”?